ARCHIVE : BSA + Living Walls : Albany

As the official media partner with "Living Walls : Albany" founder Samson Contompasis for this inaugural city-wide Street Art event held in New York State's capital in September 2011, Brooklyn Street Art invited artists to participate, gave the keynote lecture at the New York State Museum, and provided the following coverage of artists and installations, including an overview on The Huffington Post.

(published on Huffington Post)
Street Art events which pair local and international talent with bare walls continue to multiply in unexpected locations around the world as young Street Artists and their fans push forward this D.I.Y. scene that had early roots in graffiti. From festivals and week-long events in Toronto to Melbourne to London to Paris to Stavanger (Norway) and Grottaglie (Italy), the first worldwide people's art movement continues to enliven previously moribund areas of cities and engage local conversations about culture and public space.

There were so many moving parts in this large and easy going cultural festival this weekend, and we were really happy to meet so many people in the street, at the Marketplace encampment, in St. Joseph’s Church, at the tile factory, and during our keynote lecture at the New York State Museum Saturday. Thanks to Samson Contompasis for asking BSA to partner with him for LWAlbany and a quick shout out to other local partners James Shultis at Grand Street Community Arts, Sivan Shimoni, the staff at NYS Museum, and local blogger KC Orcutt at KeepAlbanyBoring.com

Street Artist Overunder just completed his astounding tiled installation this weekend in Albany on the wall of L’esperance Tile Works, a local tile maker with a special 1920s “dust press” that the artist also worked into the piece. For an artist with such a fluid and freewheeling figurative style with a spray can, it is surprising to see it interpreted with such permanence and cogitative consideration.

As Street Artists have been installing their new works on walls around Albany these past 10 days or so, the common story one witnesses is the level of engagement of adults and kids stopping on the sidewalk, in their cars, watching the process, photographing and discussing the art, and exploring the creative process.

Here are a couple in-progress scenes with German twins How & Nosm on a lift beginning their new mural Friday afternoon after arriving from Miami, where they completed new work for Wynwood Walls. Also we were excited to have spent some time seeing OverUnder working with a local tile maker and two new assistants from the neighborhood mixing up mortar

Street Artist Joe Iurato went to church yesterday at St. Joseph’s in Albany, where a number of street artists have been putting together some great work this week. These pieces are floated in front of the walls, rather than painted directly on them out of respect for the original building, an the effect immediately makes the hallowed spaces of organized religion feel more relevant than seeing the Pope on a skateboard.

Images by Andrew Franciosa and MC3
Overunder is a firecracker. From my initial participation in witnessing the Living Walls unfold in Albany, he has been nothing but a friendly and tireless ball of creative energy (in the best way possible) showing me parts of the city I grew up in that I didn’t even know existed on Google maps of places he’s been exploring.

Words by KC Orcutt
Photos by MC3 and Andrew Franciosa
Within moments of ROA’s arrival on site to his designated building for “Living Walls : Albany,” he spotted a recently departed squirrel, took it as a sign and it became quite clear what he was going to do next.

The squirrel population in Albany is (somewhat) jokingly of a “different” breed

Words by KC Orcutt
Photos by Bob Anderson
With Marketplace Gallery transformed into what is best classified as a sleep away art camp -- complete with scattered sleeping arrangements, wheat pastes hung up on the gallery walls ready to greet the outside world, in progress portraits of some of the participating artists by White Cocoa and a healthy buzz of street art-fueled...

In Street Arts’ latest chapter, the storytellers are hitting up walls with all manner of influences and methods. More than ever before, formally trained and self taught fine artists are skipping the gallery route and taking their work directly to the public, creating cultural mash-ups and highly personal stories of their own, altering the character of this scene once again.

Is this a metaphor for the rich feasting on the US economy? Or just the Macy’s One Day Sale? Here’s a quick cell phone snap of the new piece by Broken Crow at Living Walls : Albany, complete with blood slopping across the field of yellow flowers. More to come soon.

Street Artist Cake brought her hand painted people to Albany yesterday, with these portraits of a "wondrous traveler"named Saige. A fine artist who makes one of a kind wheate-pasted one off pieces as a means of therapy and tribute,

Mr. Iurato spent a couple of days in beautiful late summer sun drenched bliss and managed to knock out two pieces – one on Central ave in Albany, the other on a highway buttress across the river in neighboring Rensellaer. Hewing to some of his favorite themes, you will see references to faith, redemption and the spiritual journey here in some exclusive pics just for BSA readers.

Overunder is a fast-moving free-associating surrealist whose Street Art pieces catch your eye as you skip past a run down neglected piece of property. Always balancing on the edge of your reality and his boundless imagination, the painted plumcake pieces will strum the brainwaves and may make you all skittish like a cat at a rocking chair convention.

Words by KC Orcutt
with photos from Andrew Franciosa, Frank Whitney, and Ken Jacobie
Working in the monumental landmark of St. Joseph’s church, the focal point marking Albany’s Ten Broeck Historical District, everything echoed. The shake of the spray paint can, Chris Stain’s soft but direct voice, friends casually eating out of take-out containers and the sliding of a huge ladder against the wooden floor echoed ...

Words by KC Orcutt, Images by Andrew Franciosa
A new livelihood is radiating around the colossal work of Gaia and Nanook, which debuted the Living Walls: Albany last week. Their vibrant piece adorns the side of a vacant, unroofed building currently aging on N. Pearl and Livingston.